On April 29, 1992, a county clerk in a Simi Valley courthouse read the verdict deciding the fate of four officers accused of brutally beating Rodney King a year earlier. All four were acquitted. Within hours, South Central Los Angeles was on fire.

Riots, violence and looting continued for days throughout the city, On the third day, the man whose suffering had started it all appealed to the masses by way of a cluster of reporters. His voice shaking, starting and stopping, he asked simply, "Can we all get along?"

As the smoke began to clear, the city asked itself that question and began to assess the damage. Fifty-four people were dead, with another 2,400 injured. Some 3,000 businesses were vandalized or destroyed.

Physically, the community had a long road ahead to rebuild. Organizations like Rebuild L.A. stepped forward to aid in those efforts, which were in some cases less effective than hoped. But more desperately, residents called for a deeper overhaul—systemic reform beginning first and foremost with the LAPD.

Two decades later, the LAPD still treads softly. Deputy Chief Pat Gannon of the Southwest Bureau remembers that long process. But the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots provides opportunity for more than a rehashing of the past failures.

Here, we attempt to gauge the progress of a city that purports to have come a long way since the night the riots began. We talk with the people who lived through that upheaval—in the heart of the conflict on the streets of South Central L.A. or from the elevated offices of city leadership. Anna Deavere Smith, a cultural icon whose one-woman play captured the raw emotion of that upheaval, remembers the 300 people she interviewed who all tried to show her "their L.A." Rev. Cecil Murray, then-head pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church, watched as his efforts to calm the city came too late. Storeowners and residents in Crenshaw and other key neighborhoods still struggle to rebuild.

We spoke to the witnesses of a city torn apart. We asked them what they saw during the unrest and in the years following. Through their eyes, we reflect on the city then, compare it to Los Angeles today, and look forward to the changes still left to be made.